The piano is bright! I went into this knowing that was going to be a possible problem. It worked out better than I thought, and I'm quite happy wit the result; but, the piano is a bit bright due to its proximity.

I listened to sample1 about 4 hours ago, now it seems sample 2 has been pulled. Hard to know your "bright" without a reference to your "dark" piano-wise, BUT I thin it sounds good overall tonally, separation of individual instrumentation seems right.

I did a different sample of the same track on sample.2, and pulled the original. That should be a good link to the new sample, though.The first sample built too slowly for a partial sample, so I grabbed a different take.

Bright,... maybe I should have said strong presence? You will not be left for want of piano.

I did a different sample of the same track on sample.2, and pulled the original. That should be a good link to the new sample, though.The first sample built too slowly for a partial sample, so I grabbed a different take.

Bright,... maybe I should have said strong presence? You will not be left for want of piano.

And thats the softer, slower, Adagio portion of the concerto.The rehearsal of the concerto had the lid closed. Then, surprise, surprise,.. the show had the lid open for the concerto, and closed for the balance of the show, softening it considerably.

Today,... lid open for the whole show, with the open lid facing the audience.I bagged the first row, right side seat, and we stored all of our gear on the left first row seat, as the piano was so close to that row, anyone sitting there woud have had there face stuffed full of piano.So, I utilized the hardwood church pews as the boundary layer, rearward baffle, and i taped the foam rem pieces to the sides of the pews as side baffling.It record, and eft the first row seats to a really nice couple that comes to the shows (all of them), and I went and sat in the rear side.

I somehow managed to run two complete sets of blank files with Gude and the R09HR. They soundchecked out just fine; I hit record, saw levels, and time rolling on record; walked away. I get home to find two 41 minute blank stereo files that weighed in about 2gb of blankness, totally flat-lined. Gremlins.

And,... more time logged in the shade of another D'Tree.

Conclusion of test firing:Total potential for exploration. I would very much like to do this again without the piano.

OK,... I've worked with the gal that is the furthest to the left in the image above, #4441, for a couple of years now. Her name is Sarah O'Brien.We've gotten along wonderfully. Always a really nice smile, and kind words.I found out friday that she was the lead cellist for Yanni for 23 years, and leader of his orchestra.They are together in this video segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ag2S7iLxkI've always been amazed at her playing, but, never knew the background.So, just today, I was asking her about that, and she said that she got her "in" with the Consort with Beth Folsom, the soprano violin player, who, was also with Yanni for a long long time.I had no idea that I was so close to new ageyness.

Those samples sound quite good to me Mike. I like the hefty sense of spatial width from the wide omnis as well as the detailed yet flattering perspective on the ensemble it provides. Good "division of labor" amongst the three mics, avoiding phase interaction conflicts in the 2-channel mix-down.

Came across an AES paper which explores a setup quite similar to OMT in a number of ways. I just started reading it at lunch today so I won't speculate too much or offer my opinion until I have a chance to fully digest it. However, I wanted to share the link here as there are some obvious parallels with what I'm doing. Generally, the idea of using spaced arrangements consisting of multiple coincident pairs to facilitate manipulation of the recording afterwards. More specifically, I immediately noticed similarities to my idea of turning the 6-ch OMT side facing supercardioids into coincident Mid/Side arrangements as illustrated in the advanced section of the OMT booklet - modifications I want to experiment with next, using 8 channels total. More on this later..

Mike...the recording sounds amazing!!! Thank you so so much!!! I can't thank you enough...I was supposed to be practicing other music today, but I've just been sitting and listening to the recording. The balance is fantastic and the sound quality is wonderful!!! Others have recorded us in the past, but I want you to know that your recording is the best we have ever had.

referencing the DPA4060 pair taped to the brick wall, on either side of the post, below; Baffled Boundary Layer

Liking how you used the column as a baffle between the boundary mounted 4060s taped to the wall. That seems to me an excellent setup for that room. If you are able to, it would be interesting to do the same using the opposing wall and center column behind the stage, high enough over the piano that you have a more-or-less direct line of sight to the strings. You should be able to do that without much if any visual impact at all as long as you can set it up early so as to be out of the way of the performers. That would get improved proximity to the sources and push the audience further back in the auditory perspective. Only one way to know if that really works better or not.

Feels pretty good to get that kind of feedback from the musicians, no?

Received special permission to record at Snarky Puppy's Ground Up festival last weekend, upon promising to keep the recordings private and provide them to the music label for audience-reaction and ambience in their potential live multitrack releases. This is a fantastic musician-centric festival held in a small a park along the beach, quite intimate as it is capped at 2000 attendees per day. Outstanding talent, heart and mindset by all involved- the musicians, the audio support crew, the festival organizers and staff and the attendees. Got in with their recording engineer to provide him my files and hear his. They were multitracking all performances and had up a pair of spaced omnis at the soundboards of both stages. I moved my 6ch OMT rig back and forth between the two stages.

A few photos.. here's my setup at the smaller stage-

Last photo is the kicked-back hammock perspective of the rig and stage. A nice spot to chill while keeping an eye on things.

First photo is of my rig as viewed from below. Like at the other stage, the recording engineers spaced omnis are visible as well (Earthworks employed at this stage).Second is from the recording position (Wood Brothers)Third and fourth are is from the recording position (Snarky Puppy)Last is the view out the window looking West from Miami Beach across Biscayne Bay towards the Miami skyline from the top floor of the hotel hosting the last-night shows. Posting this one simply because I found it a cool photo with the reflected ballroom lights interposed against the sky.